When most investors are down on a stock they own, they get depressed and sell.

Not so for Carl Icahn. Since he first bought shares of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: LGF) back in mid-2006, the stock has fallen from around $10 per share to the current price of just over $7. Now Icahn has doubled his stake in the film house to 9.2%. Lions Gate is best-known for hit movies including "Crash" and "Saw", along with TV shows such as "Weeds" and "Mad Men." Icahn may see tremendous value in the company's library of films.

Vice Chairman Michael Burns told (subscription required) The Wall Street Journal that "Mr. Icahn and Lions Gate seem to share a similar vision of the growing value of content as platforms increase delivery around the world."

It'll be interesting to see if Icahn gets active in this company. He has said that he views the company as underleveraged, but current market conditions may make it tough for the company to pursue some of Icahn's favorite value-creation strategies: borrowing money to buy back stock and/or pursuing a sale or merger.

PC and chip companies have been trying to get TV viewers to use internet functions on their home entertainment systems for years. The problem may be that people who watch television are old. Consumers who use PCs are young. That has not stopped repeated attempts to marry the two.

Intel (NASDAQ: INTC) and Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) are making another run at putting the two technologies together and it will probably fail. According to The Wall Street Journal, "The pair outlined software tools, based on Yahoo technology, to help companies deliver Web content alongside TV programming. The software complements a new chip from Intel designed to enable interactive features on TVs."

Under this new plan, web content will sit in a bar at the bottom of the screen.

TV viewers already see information at the bottom of their TV monitors. Most business news channels like CNBC use the space to run stock quotes. Sports programming often scrolls scores in that section of the screen. Those bits of information may be useful, but TV is still a passive experience.

People who sit in front of a television set want information and entertainment. They do not want to have to make any effort to get those things. The PC has hundreds of applications that involve a great deal of effort. The keyboard is an "active" feature. People sitting in lounge chairs to watch the tube want to fall asleep.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Panasonic, the main American subsidiary of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.(NYSE:MC) is getting serious about its bet on the next generation of televisions. Panasonic is going with what's known as OEL (organic electroluminescent) or OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) TVs. They're vastly thinner---less than a quarter of an inch---and are supposed to faster, sharper and use less energy. (Some have disputed the last point.) But they could wear out quicker than other TVs, and by organic they just mean carbon based.

Sony (NYSE: SNE) already has the lead in the a OLED TV market. But Sony's TV is only 11 inches and it costs $2,500. They plan to release a 27-inch version "fairly soon," according to this blog dedicated to OLED. Matsushita---which is changing its name to Panasonic come fall---is planning a 37-inch screen for around $1,400, according to Reuters, which was picking the story up from the Japanese newspaper Sankei Shimbun. But that's still years away.

Toshiba (TOSBF) is also working on one, but suffered some delays. Samsung just announced they were investing $530 million in OLED production. There have been plenty of delays in this OLED technology--almost as many as there have been with the rival technology SED (surface-conduction electron-emitter display). Toshiba and Canon (NYSE:CAJ)is the big backers of SED TVs. After years of delays the battle for the next, thinnest TV is heating up.

Visa Inc. (NYSE: V) stock is falling after analyst Jeff Macke said last night on CNBC's "Fast Money" that investors should sell V and buy shares of MasterCard (NYSE: MA) instead. If you think this stock won't be rising too far in the coming months, then it could be a good time to look at a bearish hedged play on V.

After hitting a one-year high of $69.00 shortly after its IPO last month, the stock has been sticking at a level between there and $65. This morning, V opened at $68.44. So far today the stock has hit a low of $66.01 and a high of $68.72. As of 12:00, V is trading at $66.42, down $1.67 (-2.4%). The chart for V looks bullish and steady.

For a bearish hedged play on this stock, I would consider a May bear-call credit spread above the $80 range. A bear-call credit spread is an options position that combines the purchase and sale of call options to hedge risk in case the stock doesn't do what you think but still leverage nice returns. For this particular trade, we will make a 4.2% return in 6 weeks as long as V is below $80 at May expiration. Visa would have to rise by more than 20% before we would start to lose money. Learn more about this type of trade here.

Last night's Super Bowl may have been the most watched telecast ever, according to preliminary data compiled by Nielsen Media Research.

Ratings for the contest between the New York Giants and New England Patriots were up 9% from last year. Figures for the number of viewers weren't immediately available from Nielsen. The most watched program of all time was the 1983 finale of "M-A-S-H." Until now, the most-watched Super Bowl was in 1996 when the Dallas Cowboys defeated the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Shares of News Corp (NYSE: NWS), whose Fox Network broadcast last night's game, are down 18% over the past year as Wall Street worried that Rupert Murdoch's media empire would be hurt by a slowdown in advertising spending and the Hollywod writers' strike.

Looks like Al Gore, the world's most prominent environmentalist, also is interested in the type of green that you put in your bank account. The former vice president and Nobel prize winner's company, Current Media, told the SEC today that it plans to raise as much as $100 million through an IPO.

His timing, though, couldn't have been worse. Bloomberg News reports that about 24 companies have canceled IPOs in the past month, the most in a decade. So what makes Al Gore, the company's executive chairman, and his partner Joel Hyatt, the CEO, think the time is right for Current Media? I have no idea.

For one thing, the parent of the Current TV cable channel, is almost $32 million in the red and neither Gore nor Joel Hyatt have any agreement to either remain employed by the company or maintain their stock ownership at particular levels, according to a filing with the SEC.

Interestingly, Current Media pays its executives pretty well. Gore and Hyatt both earned more than $1.04 million in compensation from the company in 2007. Both have also lent the San Francisco-based company $1 million each, the filing said.

Odds are pretty good that this IPO isn't going to happen. Current Media, though, would make an attractive acquisition target for a media conglomerate such as Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) or Viacom Inc. (NYSE: VIA) because it attracts a young audience that advertisers covet. Rupert Murdoch probably would like the company as well, but I doubt that Gore would ever be able to show his face at Earth Day again if he sold out to News Corp (NYSE: NWS).

Almost no one watches the News Corp (NYSE: NWS) Fox Business Network.

What is the channel's viewership? According to The New York Times "about 6,300, on average, on any given weekday, according to early estimates compiled by Nielsen Media Research." The comparable number for rival CNBC was 283,000 viewers based on data between October 15 and December 14.

The news has to be a humiliation for Fox. It started the network by saying that it would be a credible challenge to CNBC, and it spent millions of dollars on promoting the new network.

It may get harder for the network to get people to come on its shows. Who wants to go to a studio to be seen by a few kids who are watching TV because they are home sick from school?

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Indicating reduced profitability in the video display market, Fujitsu (OTC: FJTSY) has announced its departure from the production of high end plasma televisions. This news comes via ars technica and is indicative of a major trending pattern. Much is astir among Japanese electronics manufacturers as companies there take a turn for the lean and are engaged in forming manufacturing power alliances.

Much is being affected by the near total domination of liquid crystal display technology within a tightening, yet deepening image display sector. Take further evidence of change by considering Brian White's post about the exit from rear projection television by Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE). The LCD field is currently saturated and for it's improvement it needs to thin out.

Strides are still being made in regard to making LCD displays thinner and engineers are working on reducing power consumption. Little can be done however, to improve LCD profitability with so many companies cranking out cheap displays. What's needed now is for some of the remaining display manufacturers to aggressively address some considerable quality issues.

Gary Sattler does not knowingly hold financial interest in the companies he blogs about.

The waring sides in the Hollywood writers' strike don't give a hoot about the public.

Sure, we TV viewers haven't suffered much yet, but the future looks bleaker than Wisteria Lane on Desperate Housewives after the tornado, according to the Wall Street Journal:

Artful scheduling of remaining episodes of scripted shows will get them through January. Walt Disney (NYSE: DIS)'s ABC Television, for instance, has a couple of episodes of Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy that it can stretch out with some techniques such as longer recaps of previous episodes. After that, the network has a couple of new mid-season scripted shows it is planning to debut.

Oh no, does that mean that we are going to keep hearing about the tornado? Will the slow, torturous relationship between Meredith Grey and Derrick Shepherd continue to move along at a glacial pace on Desperate Housewives? Do the networks want people to start reading?

In the first six months of this year, Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO) was mentioned on network television 3,054 times in product placements, according to Nielsen data cited by the New York Times.

Think about it: every time Paula Abdul gulps down a Coke -- at least that's what it says on the can -- on American Idol, that's put on the tab of the Atlanta-based company. Neither is it coincidental when a brand is mentioned on shows like Big Love, American Dad or Scrubs.

Welcome to the post-commercial world. The theory is that the 30-second spot is so 2001 and that people -- particularly the young ones advertisers want to attract -- are savvy enough to avoid most advertising. That's why product placements are soaring.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, for one, is concerned that the public may not always be aware that someone is trying to sell them something. That concern is justified when it comes to children who are bombarded with show after show that are just excuses to sell them crap.

Unfortunately, though, the era of product placements has only begun.

Technology insider blog, TechCrunch, ran a thought-provoking post yesterday about Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) entitled, The Google Set-Top Box. The article speculates that the search-engine giant may leverage its new open-source operating system, Android, to address TV advertising in a revolutionary way. Google is already testing a new ad platform for TV with Echostar (NASDAQ: DISH), being propped up with data provided by a recent deal with Nielsen. But this just addresses the way ads are bought and sold. According to TechCrunch, almighty Google's ambitions for television go way beyond just ad delivery.

In short, the article posits that Google's aspirations for the mobile phone can be applied to the set-top box, itself essentially a computer. Android's open-source application platform can be used to help promote and support new developments that would turn TV watching more like Internet browsing. "In many ways," says Google's head of TV development, Vincent Dureau, "we think that television is becoming like the Internet in that there is a multiplication of channels. This creates challenges for viewers, advertisers and creators."

So, what does this mean in practice?

Wow, the Fox Business Network hasn't even been on the air for a month, and its critics are already writing its obituary because the channel has made some boneheaded moves.

First, as Fox-hater Keith Olbermann noted, the News Corp (NYSE: NWS) channel did some "creative" editing of negative newspaper reviews and turned them into positive ones? Yesterday, Olbermann, the host of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, "awarded" network honcho Roger Ailes the title of "Worst Person in the World" because presumably mortal enemy Bill O'Reilly's evilness just wasn't up to snuff. This bit is part of Olbermann's shtick on his program which regularly outrages conservatives.

Of course, Ailes is far from the worst person in the world. At best, he and his boss Rupert Murdoch are in the top 10% of evil-doers, well behind the likes of Osama bin Laden, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and people who dress up their pets in Halloween costumes. But unlike many arch-villains, Ailes is a very creative and resourceful guy.

For instance, he's lined up Minyanville.com characters "Hoofy the Bull" and "Boo the Bear" to host a segment on the network's critically derided Happy Hour program. Is this idea going to win a Peabody? Of course not, but it's not the end of the world, either. Still, this feature wasn't a smart PR move, because it plays into the hands of Fox's many critics, including Joe Nocera of The New York Times, who have blasted the network for being too upbeat.

Despite filling five hours of our weeks with what some (...innocently drums fingers ...) consider to be softball questions and hacky jokes, Jay Leno has managed to remain the king of the late-night time slot, consistently banking the best ratings for the hour following the evening news.

And it's looking like Tonight Show host may not want the party to end.

Three years ago, Leno, who took over the hosting chair from the beloved Johnny Carson in 1992, told General Electric Company (NYSE: GE)'s NBC Networks that he would be retiring in 2009. At that point, NBC gave the nod to auburn-haired late-late-night funnyman Conan O'Brian. But as the swan song grows closer, the Los Angeles Times reports, Leno may be having misgivings about this plan.

Leno is reportedly a workaholic and will only be 59 when 2009 rolls around. Johnny Carson was 74 when he stepped down from the gig. NBC clearly wouldn't mind keeping their number-one guy on the payroll, and if he wants to keep working, they definitely want him in their employ rather than with the competition. Leno has a non-compete clause to keep him off the air for six months after leaving NBC, but what's six months out of a 20-year career?

Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) has said it will be rolling out quite a few new initiatives to increase customer awareness and education on the digital television transition set to occur in 2009. This should come as no surprise, as there will inevitably be millions of U.S. consumers who will needlessly fret when the analog television signals currently being broadcast cease to exist in a little under two years.

This is where Circuit City has a chance to shine. For years (well, for a decade, really), the consumer electronics chain has been beaten by larger rival Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY), and the pressure has only become more intense in recent years.

Circuit City no doubt sells quite a few television sets, although the profit misses and generally bad quarters in the last six months or so has been largely attributed to the declining profit margins on flat-panel televisions. This is the very product Circuit City now wants to trumpet as it reaches out to consumers to offer education well ahead of the actual analog-to-digital hand-off.

Technology continues to evolve faster than most of us can follow -- if you blink, you might miss the next-best thing and find yourself surrounded by obsolete devices. My pale-pink iPod Mini is less than 3 years old and already worthy of mockery -- and don't get me started on my embarrassingly large collection of single tapes. MP-what?

At least Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) is helping prevent consumers from unknowingly buying a television that will quickly be seen as a relic. It's taking all analog television sets off the market. The familiar electronics retailer told its store locations to drop analog offerings at the beginning of October and focus exclusively on selling flat-panel and high-definition sets.

By February 17, 2009, all U.S. television programming will be required to be digital, as ordered by the Federal Communications Commission. Those holding on to old analog sets will be able to convert to the sharper signal using boxes, satellite equipment, or other methods of conversion. More than 60 million U.S. viewing households still watch their favorite shows via analog cable or antennas, and the government plans to offer coupons that can be used to purchase converter boxes. Where can one redeem such coupons and acquire such boxes? Well, Best Buy, of course, beginning early next year.

Beth Gaston Moon is an analyst at Schaeffer's Investment Research.